‘Alone’: The Shortest Stay Was Less Than 24 Hours — Here’s What Happened
The goal of The History Channel’s Alone is simple: survive for as long as possible. OK, it’s not as morbid as it sounds. Each season on the reality TV show, 10 contestants are isolated from each other in the wilderness with only a handful of gear. They must use nature, limited tools, and their wits to make it through the harsh conditions. The last person remaining in the competition goes home with $500,000. However, any contestant can phone a rescue team at any time and leave. With that in mind, what’s the shortest stay anyone has had on Alone?
‘Alone’ contestants can tap out at any time for any reason
No one is forced to stay on Alone for an extended period of time. The contestants are given a satellite phone, which they can use to call rescuers and “tap out” of the competition. In nine seasons, the show has seen plenty of tap-out reasons — homesickness, anxiety, and simply changing one’s mind are very common. Some contestants find they aren’t as mentally or physically ready as they once thought. Additionally, one of Alone’s rules for contestants is weekly medical check-ins. Sometimes, a severe injury forces a participant to forfeit.
The shortest stays on Alone range from less than a day to two weeks. Many of them were medical evacuations, but other reasons motivated some of the early tap-outs. For example, season 9 contestant Jacques Turcotte tapped out after 15 days because he missed his family. That was also the case for season 3’s Jim Shields, who left after two days.
What was the shortest stay on History’s ‘Alone’ so far?
Season 2 contestant Desmond White of Arizona currently holds the record for the shortest amount of time spent on the show. According to White’s bio, he had a “passion for the outdoors” since childhood. He learned survival tactics in Boy Scouts as a child and later served in the U.S. Army for eight years.
“During his enlistment, he traveled the world and fine-tuned his survival skills. Although each place was different, the survival skills he was taught in the military helped him make it through various harsh environments,” the bio concluded.
White tapped out of Alone after just six hours. According to his account at the time (via Inquisitr), he was scared by a bear and decided to leave. As seen in the video above, White discovered bear droppings in his area and became anxious about encountering one.
Since then, some Alone fans on Reddit have criticized White, claiming that he lied about actually seeing a bear and judging his lack of preparedness. However, as one user in the thread pointed out, no one can know how the situation really felt unless they were in it themselves.
“I’m pretty comfortable outdoors, and I have no real fear of black bears. But if I was alone, on Vancouver Island, without my typical defense mechanisms, I’d be pretty terrified, too,” the fan wrote.
Season 2 winner David McIntyre lasted 66 days
The person with the longest stay on Alone Season 2 was David McIntyre, a “post-apocalyptic fiction writer” from Pennsylvania. Before competing on the show, he practiced wilderness survival in several areas and founded the Bushmaster Wilderness Survival School. McIntyre won the season after 66 days, despite a rapid 20-pound weight loss early in his stay.
Do you think you can last longer in the wilderness than these contestants? Check out how to land a spot on History’s Alone.
Alone Seasons 1 through 9 are available for streaming via The History Channel, and season 8 is also available on Netflix. The two spinoffs, Alone: Frozen and Alone: The Skills Challenge, are now airing with new episodes every Thursday.
